14 August, 2012

Did you drop your iPhone in water or maybe went swimming with it? Well, I am here to tell you that I did the the later. This weekend I jumped into a pool with my iPhone in my board shorts. 5 to 8 minutes later, I realized that I had my iPhone in my board shorts. Here is what I did to save my iPhone - Yes, so far it is saved. I thought I'd share this with our traveling GPS customers just in case this ever happens to you.

1. Wipe off the iPhone immediately.

2. Grab a large bowl and bag of uncooked rice.

3. Fill the bowl half way with uncooked rice. Place the iPhone in a bowl on top of the uncooked rice. Fill the rest of the bowl with uncooked rice.

4. After the initial first two hours, scoop out some of the rice that is around the iPhone. Replace some of the moist rice with fresh new uncooked rice.

5. Place the bowl of rice in a location that may be a little bit warmer in your home. I know that in my home, the lower level is always more cool and humid due to being on a slab and near a lake. I placed the bowl in an upper floor bedroom due to the temperature being warmer and dryer. Leave it here for the next 46 hours. DO NOT be tempted to turn it on.

6. Take the iPhone out of the bowl of rice after 48 hours. Gently clean out the connectors on the bottom of your iPhone. A clean toothbrush (never used) works well. Again, I stress gently.

7. Use a POWERED USB port or wall electrical wall charger to turn on your phone. Do not connect it directly to your Mac. Let the phone charge itself for a little while.

8. If the phone powers up, then you will have two options to restore your phone. You can use either the iCloud (if you set it up already) or through iTunes. If you do it through iTunes Restore then you will need to connect the iPhone to your Mac. The low level power on the Mac connection may not start your phone. Use a powered USB connection. To restore from iCloud, go to Settings, iCloud & Restore. To restore from iTunes, open iTunes, click on you iPhone (on left) & Restore. Just check the restore dates before you select to restore the iPhone. If you have been backing up on the iCloud then use the iCloud restore over the iTunes restore.

I hope this helped you to save your iPhone from water damage. Please feel free to like this post or share it.